Leah - Day 1

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Dear Rafiki,

Today was our first full day in Tanzania. It began with a wake up call to Muslim worship around 4 in the morning. It sound of the muezzin (not sure how it is spelled) seemed like it was coming from right out of my window. I fell back to sleep on and off throughout the early morning. When it was actually time to get up around seven forty, surprisingly I jumped right out of bed. Cindy Taylor and I dressed ourselves, snagged a malaria pill and headed out the door for breakfast. I had a Spanish omelette, fried potatoes, a mango, toast with fresh peanut butter and honey, and I think pinapple juice. After that we put on our hiking boots and took a bus to the old school about half hour away. When we got off the bus the mud was so think we slipped around and tried to not get our feet stuck in it. We turned a few corners and there we were, standing in front of about fourty children wearing North Shore t-shirts. They greeted us with "jambo!" and "habana!" which means "hello" in Swahili. The teachers were wearing NSCDS shirts and vests. At first I just had no idea how to react, what to say, what to do. But as I walked through the group of students and asked for their names in Swahili "jina langu ni Leah, nawewe?" and they responded, I started to get the hang of it. Sometimes the language barrier made me feel a little awkward so I made some silly facial expressions or taught them the macarena... Ha. Anyways, one memory I will absolutly never forget: A little girl, probably age five or younger, wearing a long green patterned dress with silver hooped earings came up to me. I danced with her and sang with her a little bit and about five minutes after we first met each other she took a red rubberband off of her tiny wrist and motioned for me to put out my arm. She put it on my wrist and I tried to ask her motioning and saying in English for lack of Swahili words "Is this for me?" pointing to myself, and she nodded and smiled, kind of embarraced or something. The other kids looked on their wrists to see if they could give me anything but had nothing and seemed a little disappointed. I said "asante sana asante sana!" (thank you thank you!) I just met her and she gave me something of hers. It just seemed so unreal.
After about thirty minutes at the old school we walked to the new school. Mr. Kelly and Mr. Lumberg said we can think of it in two ways, the money we raised last year from the read-a-thon bought the land for the new school, or it built all of the new buildings on the property. But I am getting ahead of myself. We walked with the kids from the old school to the new school; through the village on a EXTREMELY muddy road in the pooring rain. All of us were wearing hiking boots, the children were wearing sandles or flip flops that constantly would fall off of their feet and get stuck in the mud.
After about an hour walk we arrived at the new school where even MORE kids joined us. They sang a couple of songs for us and we sang one or two for them. We taught them "Head Shoulders Knees and Toes" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider." I tried to play tag with them but they were never 'IT.' They kept chasing me and grabbing hold of anything they could. I helped go over their English alphabet on a chalk board inside the school. Most of them would shout out the answers and volunteer to write on the board. It was wonderful. I have so much more to say but very little time left so I will leave out a lot of stuff. By the end of our visit it was pretty tough to leave. Even though we will see them tomorrow, and we told them that, about three or four of them wouldn't let go of me when I was trying to leave. One of the girls said in Swahili to her teacher 'Alright i'll see ya!! bye!" And she tried to walk with me out of the school yard.
Later in the day we went on a hike through a rice patty. It was kinda difficult to walk through. Ha, while walking through the patty in VERY narrow, muddy pathways we passed a lot of women and some men carrying HUGE logs and branches on their heads. There was one lady in particular that I won't forget. She was carrying... basically a TREE on her head not using her hands at all. One of the kids in our group was about to take a picture. She passed us and all of the sudden looked back... walked backwards and firmly said, "Don't take." She said it with such authority...
Okay I'm gonna cut this short, I have a minute left.
Everything is amazing here in Tanzania. I hope all is well in Chicago.
Send my love to everyone.
Love,

Leah Druzinsky, 08

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Comments

[Lisa]

hi back!
Leah - I loved reading about your first day! Brings tears of joy knowing that you have participated in something so wonderful and generous. love, lisa